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May – 12

TNPSC BITS
 Locusts normally arrive during July-October, but have already been spotted in
Rajasthan.
o Locusts are a group of short-horned grasshoppers.
 The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved US$ 500 million
for ‘Covid-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project’
initiated by India.
o It will be implemented by the National Health Mission (NHM), the National
Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR).
 The Ministry of Defence signed a contract with the Tata Power to modernize
infrastructure of 37 airfields of Indian Air Force.
 The Institute of Advanced Virology in Thiruvananthapuram of Kerala has gained
membership to the prestigious Global Virus Network (GVN) - an international
association of medical virologists.
o This is the first institution in the country to get the prestigious GVN
membership.
 Jharkhand banned manufacture, sale and storage of pan masala, containing
Magnesium Carbonate, for one year under the Food Safety and Standards
Regulation 2011.
o Jharkhand becomes the third state after Maharashtra and Bihar to impose a
ban on pan masala.
 Tamil Nadu government has constituted a high-level committee headed by
former Reserve Bank of India governor C Rangarajan.
o It will assess the overall immediate impact of Covid-19 pandemic on different
sectors of state economy.
 The USA President Donald Trump has said the coronavirus outbreak has hit
the US harder than the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II
or the 9/11 terror attacks, pointing the finger at China.
 The MahaKavach App, a real-time digital contact tracing mobile application,
was launched by the Government of Maharashtra.
o It enables citizens to contribute and assist the health authorities in contact
tracing, geo-fencing and tracking of quarantined COVID-19 patients.
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NATIONAL
Prime Minister Research Fellowship Scheme (PMRF)
 A new amendment makes GATE score mandatory for the students of any other
institutes other than the central institutes.
 The PMRF Scheme was first introduced in the Union Budget 2018-19.
 The scheme is designed to improve quality of research in higher educational
institutions.
 In other words, the institutes should offer science and technology degrees.
 The institutes that are eligible under PMRF scheme include IISERs, IITs, IISc
Bengaluru and other top central universities and NITs.

NBW Clearance of Projects

 The National Board for Wildlife (NBW), headed by Prime Minister, met last time
in 2014.
 After 6 years gap, it recently gave its approval for the following projects.
 Drilling of boreholes inside Sharavathi Lion Tailed Macaque sanctuary in
Karnataka.
 Construction and commissioning of Lakhwar Multipurpose Project (300 MW) in
Dehradun and Tehri Garhwal districts by Uttarakhand, close to the Binog
Wildlife Sanctuary.
 Railway line through Amrabad tiger corridor in Telangana.
 Highway expansion through the Mollem Wildlife Sanctuary in Goa.
 Etalin hydropower project on Dibang River in Arunachal Pradesh’s Dibang
Valley.
 Dibang is a tributary of the Brahmaputra river which flows through the states
of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.
Dibang Valley
 Dibang Valley is one of India’s most biodiverse zones.
 It is also home for the Idu Mishmi community.
 It has subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest and subtropical rain forests.
 The project falls under the richest bio-geographical province of the Himalayan
zone and one of the mega biodiversity hotspots of the world.
 The proposed project location falls at the junction of the Paleoarctic, Indo-
Chinese, and Indo-Malayan biogeographic regions.
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INTERNATIONAL
Stringency Index
 A Stringency Index was created by the Oxford University.
 It shows how strict a country’s measures were, and at what stage of the
pandemic spread it enforced these.
 As per the index, India imposed its strictest measures much earlier than others.
 India scored 0.7 below than Australia, Thailand, Taiwan, and South Korea.
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ECONOMY
Coir Production in India
 The Coir Board signed a Memorandum of Understanding with IIT Madras.
 India and Sri Lanka are the leading producers of Coir (90% Global Production).
 India fulfills two-thirds of the coir product needs in the world.
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IMPORTANT DAYS
World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD) - May 09
 It was organized by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the African-
Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) together with Environment for the
Americas (EFTA).
 Theme of this year is “Birds Connect Our World”.
 Before 2018, there were two of the world’s largest bird education campaigns,
International Migratory Bird Day (IMBD) and World Migratory Bird Day
(WMBD).
 On 2017, in the margins of the CMS COP12 in Manila, Environment for the
Americas (EFTA), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the
Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds
(AEWA), announced an innovative partnership to increase awareness of the
plight of migratory birds around the world.
 Starting in 2018, the new joint campaign adopted the single name of “World
Migratory Bird Day”.
 The major events to celebrate this day are to be organized twice a year, on the
second Saturday in May and in October.
About CMS
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 In order to protect the migratory species throughout their range countries, a

Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), has been in force,
under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme.
 It is also referred to as the Bonn Convention.
 CMS is the only global and UN-based intergovernmental organization
established exclusively for conservation and management of terrestrial, aquatic
and avian migratory species throughout their range.

World Fair Trade Day - May 09

 It is endorsed by the World Fair Trade Association.
 It is the global authority on fair trade, comprised of over 450 member
organisations from 75 countries around the world.
 Theme of the year is "Planet Fair Trade, Enterprises for the new economy".

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